DefenseNews

Switzerland seeks additional $1.2 billion for air defense in 2026 budget

PARIS — The Swiss government is seeking parliamentary approval to allocate an additional 970 million Swiss francs (US$1.2 billion) for air defense under the 2026 budget, citing a heightened threat situation and long delivery times for defense equipment. The requested appropriation funds include 250 million francs earmarked for down payments on short-range ground-based air defense systems and 650…
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DefenseNews

US Navy destroyer spent 4 days without power in South China Sea

A U.S. Navy destroyer went days in the South China Sea without power last month, leaving sailors without potable water, galley services, toilets or air conditioning. USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, suffered an “engineering casualty” with its…
DefenseNews

Trump orders Pentagon to cut back military exercises with South Korea

President Donald Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with long-term Asian ally South Korea, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against Iran. Hours before exercises were scheduled to begin, Trump said on his Truth Social site he was “not happy” that the U.S. had agreed to participate and…
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DefenseNews

How US military funding propelled China’s robot dogs

China’s Unitree Robotics — among the world’s biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots — based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. defense technology official and three top…
DefenseNews

US Space Force, Japan launch sensor to bolster space surveillance above Indo-Pacific

A U.S. Space Force Space Domain Awareness payload launched successfully Aug. 10 aboard Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite 7, or QZS-7, completing a bilateral effort that places American sensors on Japanese navigation satellites. The U.S. payload rode a Japanese H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. It is the second and final sensor in the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System-Hosted Payload program, the…
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DefenseNews

Pentagon inks deals with Boeing, RTX to boost production of SM-3 components

The Pentagon signed two framework agreements Friday with Boeing and RTX to expand production of critical components for the Standard Missile-3, the Navy’s primary ship-launched interceptor against ballistic missiles. The deals cover avionics and ejector assemblies Boeing supplies to prime contractor Raytheon, an RTX business, for both the SM-3 Block IB and the newer Block IIA. Both variants…
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